


At the end of all things

by Hannah_Girl



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Background Relationships, F/M, Multi, Post-Dominion War (Star Trek), Survival, The Borg, Trauma, Violence, post federation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:53:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29185848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hannah_Girl/pseuds/Hannah_Girl
Summary: After the Dominion and the Borg lay waste to the federation, humanity has been reduced to cave dwelling in the ruins of the Earth. But someway, a somehow, can they ever go back to what they were before?
Relationships: Benjamin Sisko/Kasidy Yates, Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard, Bochra/Geordi La Forge, Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway, Data/Original Female Character, Harry Kim/Tom Paris/B'Elanna Torres, Jadzia Dax/Kira Nerys, Julian Bashir/Elim Garak, Julian Bashir/Jadzia Dax, Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien, Kira Nerys/Odo, The Doctor (Star Trek)/Seven of Nine, William Riker/Deanna Troi, worf/ba’el
Kudos: 13





	At the end of all things

**Author's Note:**

> Lots of AU stuff, this fic isn’t canon in any way. Also, my main pairings are going to be Picard/Crusher, Kira/Odo, Dax, Bashir and all the poly they are involved in, Janeway/Chakotay, and Tom/B’Elanna/Harry. All other pairings are background pairs.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard hadn’t thought of himself as a captain for a very long time. Three years. Had it been that long already? He’d lost track of the days and barely noticed the passage of weeks, months, years.

As he gazed around the cavern at the small fires and the figures huddled around them in the shadows of the dim light, he wondered if any of them realized how long they’d been living that way. 

This cavern was long, and it had taken them a few months to map it all out, but once they had, it became their new home. It was safe. It masked their life signs from scanners, and it protected them from the borg.

Unfortunately, the cave had minimal resources, and they needed to brave going to the surface to hunt, scavenge for supplies, and meet with other encampments, and whenever they did, they risked certain death. Or worse. 

There were any number of ways someone could die on the surface. Though the Dominion had moved on after devastating Earth three years ago, they had a well-established outpost on neighboring Alpha Centauri, and Jem’Heddar warships were known to pass through the system or to use the surface as a training ground. They could detect the life signs of foraging parties. 

And there was always the borg. What the Dominion didn’t destroy, the borg swept through two years after and picked off what was left. They too had moved on having left humanity a shell of what it was before, but drones still roamed the surface, always assimilating and always a threat.

“Captain,” Picard didn’t hear her voice right away, but a more gentle “Jean-Luc,” caught his attention and had him turning to greet Doctor Beverly Crusher. His love, his soulmate, the one person that made all of this bearable. 

“We’re getting low on medical supplies again,” Dr. Crusher informed him. “When is Will supposed to be back?”

“He’ll be back in a few days,” Picard responded. “How are we doing on food?’

“Down to rations again,” Beverly’s voice was grim. Picard was used to eating cave insects and even bats by now, but after three years even they were growing scarce.

“Do what you can,” Picard replied. What else could he tell her? They were responsible for a small colony of civilians. They depended on Picard and what was left of his crew for their survival. They were what was left of Earth’s population. Men, women, children, none of them had ever gone to Starfleet academy, none of them had the long years of experience that they had.

At least Picard and the crew of the Enterprise weren’t alone. They’d been joined by what was left of the crew of the USS Defiant a year into the invasion of the Dominion, and more recently, the USS Voyager had returned home to the alpha quadrant after seven years int he delta quadrant- only to discover that they would have been better off staying away. After all, who would want to come back to this?

“Jean-Luc?” Beverly’s voice brought Picard out of his thoughts, and he turned to her. She gazed up at him, her eyes full of concern. “When was the last time you slept?”

“Not now, Beverly,” he said. “I’ll feel better when Will and the others return, and everyone is safe.”

Of course, Picard thought that whenever anyone left the safety of the cave. Picard imagined their steps. Outside the cave, through the valley, up and over the mountains, and down into the ruins of the city. It was a long road; it took days. But it was worth it because the ruins of the city still provided a great deal of scavenging to be had. After three years of neglect, power sources had failed, and buildings had collapsed, but raw materials were abundant, and animals and plants had already begun colonizing the empty buildings. Beyond the city, the forests provided even more materials. The woods had just started to recover after the Dominion devastated them.

“Captain Picard,” Picard turned to see Captain Janeway and Captain Sisko approach. Their faces told him they had more news for them.

“Yes, what is it?” he asked. Sisko and Janeway were his counterparts. Both fellow captains, trained by Starfleet and where Janeway had been leading her crew through the delta quadrant, Sisko had been a war captain from the very beginning.

“We’ve been getting some strange readings from the surface,” Janeway began. “Tom and B’Elanna aren’t sure what they mean, but there are tachyons and temporal anomalies we aren’t sure where they are coming from.”

“Dax suggested the same thing,” Sisko said. “She’s working with Tom and B’Elanna on this.”

“What do you think they mean?” Picard asked, exchanging glances with Dr. Crusher as they listened to the report. “What sort of temporal anomalies?”

“Well if I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were the result of some experiments with the timeline,” Janeway explained, the scientist in her trying to mull about her own theories. “Or some sort of dimensional experiments.”

Picard frowned. He knew that the Dominion sometimes used Earth as a training ground for their soldiers, but he didn’t pin them as the type to be concerned with the fabric of time. He wasn’t sure what these readings meant.

“We should keep monitoring them for now,” Picard suggested with a shrug. “If we have to, we’ll send someone to investigate. Maybe we can talk to Odo about it when they get back.”

Janeway and Sisko both nodded and turned to return to their duties. Taking care of the refugees was always the number one priority, but as Starfleet officers, scientific curiosity was still present, especially since there was always a hope that someday they could find a way to rid the quadrant of the Dominion and the borg and then, perhaps things could be as they were.

Picard knew that was a fool’s hope. Nothing would ever really be the same again. The federation was gone. Even the Klingons and the Romulans had been brought to their knees. In fact, Sisko and Janeway had brought refugees with them. Bajorans, Romulans, Ferengi, Vulcans, Klingons, even a few Cardassians. All of them had been refugees, and now they were little more than immigrants living in a world not their own. Their own homeworlds had been devastated or occupied by Dominion forces just as Earth had been and their people were scattered in the wind.

So here Picard was, living with his crew, Sisko’s crew, Janeway’s crew, and a whole host of lost, desperate, defenseless refugees. In this cave on Earth that was now their home.


End file.
